Location: At sea, half-way between Ensenada and Guadalupe Island, Baja California, Mexico
Well, we loaded our guests last night in Ensenada after a 90 minute transfer from our hospitality suite in San Diego by luxury coach and got underway for a fairly easy transit to Guadalupe Island. The seas were flat calm until 0600 (6 a.m.) this morning when a northwest swell started kicking up. We are now running with a quartering following sea of 6 – 7 feet on a 13 second period which isn’t bad at all. The Nautilus is moving around in the swell but the stabilizer tank is taking most of the bite out. The big news in Ensenada is that there is a large forest fire on Guadalupe Island. It should be really interesting to see when we get on station this evening. Guadalupe is a volcanic desert island and from the sea, it looks quite stark with sheer vertical cliffs, lava flows and other volcanic formations with a mix of neat colours ie. red, orange, brown, grey and even white. It’s very beautiful. One of the neat things about the island is that because of it’s 4000 foot elevation, it creates it’s own weather pattern as moist pacific air is pushed up and over the island by the prevailing northwesterly winds. As the air rises and reaches it’s “dew point”, the moisture that is held in suspension in the air condenses out and creates a micro-climate. The ridge that runs across the top of this desert island is surprisingly lush and there is a forest of cedar, cypress and pine trees!!! Hard to imagine on a desert island huh. Anyways, it is this forest that has caught on fire and we can only hope that the situation can be brought under control. Captain Mike
Weather: Mid-level broken stratus clouds, northwest swell 6 – 7 feet, 10 – 15knots of wind from the northwest, air temp’s high 70’s.
Water: Water temp 71 degrees
Forest fire on Guadalupe Island
